IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00636241.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Much to tell to consumers about CSR, but who should talk or not talk about it?

Author

Listed:
  • Béatrice Parguel

    (IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12)

  • Florence Benoît-Moreau

    (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper aims at understanding whether firms should engage in CSR communications towards consumers, or let independent third parties do so. A generalisable sample of 275 adults participated in an experiment, manipulating third-parties credible information (positive information, negative, or absence of information) and company communication (generic vs. CSR communication). Results show a systematic positive effect of CSR communication on corporate brand attitude, even when negative third-parties information is available. CSR communication appears as an efficient and un-risky strategy. Results are further developed and discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Béatrice Parguel & Florence Benoît-Moreau, 2011. "Much to tell to consumers about CSR, but who should talk or not talk about it?," Post-Print halshs-00636241, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00636241
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00636241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00636241/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Vanhamme & B. Grobben, 2009. "Too good to be true ! : the effectiveness of CSR History in Countering Negative Publicity," Post-Print hal-00581630, HAL.
    2. Yubo Chen & Jinhong Xie, 2005. "Third-Party Product Review and Firm Marketing Strategy," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 218-240, February.
    3. Friestad, Marian & Wright, Peter, 1994. "The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope with Persuasion Attempts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 1-31, June.
    4. Becker-Olsen, Karen L. & Cudmore, B. Andrew & Hill, Ronald Paul, 2006. "The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 46-53, January.
    5. Kyoko Fukukawa & John Balmer & Edmund Gray, 2007. "Mapping the Interface Between Corporate Identity, Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(1), pages 1-5, November.
    6. Joëlle Vanhamme & Bas Grobben, 2009. "“Too Good to be True!”. The Effectiveness of CSR History in Countering Negative Publicity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 273-283, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Skarmeas, Dionysis & Leonidou, Constantinos N., 2013. "When consumers doubt, Watch out! The role of CSR skepticism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1831-1838.
    2. Béatrice Parguel & Florence Benoît-Moreau & Fabrice Larceneux, 2011. "How Sustainability Ratings Might Deter ‘Greenwashing’: A Closer Look at Ethical Corporate Communication," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 15-28, August.
    3. Chang-Dae Ham & Jeesun Kim, 2019. "The Role of CSR in Crises: Integration of Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Persuasion Knowledge Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 353-372, August.
    4. Su, Lujun & Gong, Qi & Huang, Yinghua, 2020. "How do destination social responsibility strategies affect tourists’ intention to visit? An attribution theory perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Mark Groza & Mya Pronschinske & Matthew Walker, 2011. "Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses to Proactive and Reactive CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(4), pages 639-652, September.
    6. Simona Romani & Silvia Grappi & Richard P. Bagozzi, 2016. "Corporate Socially Responsible Initiatives and Their Effects on Consumption of Green Products," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 253-264, May.
    7. Su‐Jung Nam & Hyesun Hwang, 2019. "What makes consumers respond to creating shared value strategy? Considering consumers as stakeholders in sustainable development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 388-395, March.
    8. Chang-Hyun Jin & Jung-Yong Lee, 2019. "The Halo Effect of CSR Activity: Types of CSR Activity and Negative Information Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-20, April.
    9. Gergely Nyilasy & Harsha Gangadharbatla & Angela Paladino, 2014. "Perceived Greenwashing: The Interactive Effects of Green Advertising and Corporate Environmental Performance on Consumer Reactions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 693-707, December.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4687 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Ricardo Leiva & Ignacio Ferrero & Reyes Calderón, 2016. "Corporate Reputation in the Business Ethics Field: Its Relation with Corporate Identity, Corporate Image, and Corporate Social Responsibility," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 299-315, November.
    12. Babatunde Ogunfowora & Madelynn Stackhouse & Won-Yong Oh, 2018. "Media Depictions of CEO Ethics and Stakeholder Support of CSR Initiatives: The Mediating Roles of CSR Motive Attributions and Cynicism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 525-540, June.
    13. Jordy F. Gosselt & Thomas Rompay & Laura Haske, 2019. "Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Effects of Internal and External CSR ECO-Labeling," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 413-424, March.
    14. Arli, Denni & Grace, Anthony & Palmer, Janet & Pham, Cuong, 2017. "Investigating the direct and indirect effects of corporate hypocrisy and perceived corporate reputation on consumers’ attitudes toward the company," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 139-145.
    15. Jochen Theis & Marvin Nipper & Marco Meier, 2024. "The influence of corporate philanthropic donations on private investors' valuation judgments: Experimental evidence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 540-554, January.
    16. Tam Thien Vo & Xinning Xiao & Shuk Ying Ho, 2019. "How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Engagement Influence Word of Mouth on Twitter? Evidence from the Airline Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 525-542, June.
    17. Kyle D. Turner, 2022. "Actions in the spotlight: Differential effects of corporate social responsibility actions on organizational celebrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 860-870, July.
    18. Price, Joseph M. & Sun, Wenbin, 2017. "Doing good and doing bad: The impact of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility on firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 82-97.
    19. Ali Raza & Amer Saeed & Muhammad Khalid Iqbal & Umair Saeed & Imran Sadiq & Naveed Ahmad Faraz, 2020. "Linking Corporate Social Responsibility to Customer Loyalty through Co-Creation and Customer Company Identification: Exploring Sequential Mediation Mechanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Constantinos N. Leonidou & Dionysis Skarmeas, 2017. "Gray Shades of Green: Causes and Consequences of Green Skepticism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 401-415, August.
    21. Lasarov, Wassili & Mai, Robert & Krause, Jan S. & Schmidt, Ulrich & Hoffmann, Stefan, 2021. "Too Cold to be Skeptical: How Ambient Temperature Moderates the Effects of CSR Communication," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00636241. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.